AS CALIFORNIA readies for its third Death Row execution in two months, the spectacle of killing an inmate just keeps becoming more absurd.

A federal judge, no doubt with good intentions, has now set special conditions for sedating an inmate before the next batch of death-dealing chemicals is injected to do the job. To make sure it all goes smoothly, two -- not just one -- anesthesiologists will stand by. There are already medical personnel who handle the injection procedure and another physician who finalizes the process by certifying that the inmate is dead.

We now have a medical protocol for executing people that is court-certified as humane, careful and pain-free. Doctors, who take an oath to save life, will be asked to kill prisoners, a grotesque oddity that the California Medical Association pointed out in opposing the federal court ruling. These contradictions are the ghoulish consequences when a state gets into the killing game.

The added doctors came about because death-penalty foes claimed the lethal injection process might be especially painful. The inmate may not be fully unconscious from the first knock-out medication before the heart-stopping drugs take effect, causing excruciating discomfort. Set aside, if you can, what the inmate did to deserve this fate.

The death penalty offers ever more absurdities as the state steps up its use. The last inmate executed, Clarence Ray Allen, was kept alive by prison doctors only to be put to death on Jan. 17. He was preceded by Stanley Tookie Williams, who drew crowds of backers and celebrities before he was executed on Dec. 13.